Coronavirus Updates

I know the last two months have been challenging for our entire community and I hope that you and your family remain safe and healthy as we continue to face the ongoing coronavirus crisis. This situation has created a lot of uncertainty for all of us, as we wonder what the future will hold and when we’ll be able to return to a normal way of life.

I too have been asking these questions and have done my best to rely on the guidance of state and county officials when considering SRJC’s response. However, the current Sonoma County “shelter in place” order expires on Sunday, May 3 and with fall scheduling deadlines and the summer term rapidly approaching, I understand our community’s request to make a timely decision regarding SRJC’s plans for summer and fall.

I would like to appreciate receiving recommendations from faculty and classified leadership and reading all the email discussion. I understand and support the ongoing need to ensure the safety of our entire SRJC community, which continues to be our top priority, as well as the need to provide adequate time to plan for a remote mode of operating in summer and fall.

While we have been having many conversations and doing planning behind the scenes for a while, after hearing your most recent feedback, I called a meeting with my vice presidents and am prepared to move forward in the following manner:

SRJC will continue to operate the instructional program and student services remotely through the end of the fall semester.

There may be some courses that require in-person instruction, such as those that require hands-on labs and those offered at the Public Safety Training Center. Where possible, we will work alongside faculty and staff in these areas to offer in-person instruction utilizing SRJC’s social distancing protocols.

During this time, we will continue to follow the current guidelines regarding essential workers on campus, which you can review in the Employee FAQs and Faculty FAQs. While we anticipate remaining in a remote format for a while, we will be constantly assessing the latest protocols from the state and the county to determine when the non-instructional operations of the district could resume in a limited or modified face-to-face format.

We will not hold any mass gatherings on campus during this time, in accordance with Governor Newsom’s guidance. This, unfortunately, means that we will be unable to hold Summer Repertory Theatre in 2020 and that other programs on campus are being canceled for summer.

Please feel free to continue to utilize the following webpages for additional information, as these are being updated weekly, including the FAQs for students and employees.

I hope that these updates help provide a greater sense of stability for our college community at this time. I know that these decisions will likely raise additional questions and I am committed to helping address those in collaboration with our faculty, staff, administrators, and students in the coming days and weeks. I also want to thank Erin Bricker for her amazing communication during this crisis. It is a fine line between over- and under-communicating and she has been able to navigate that with incredible finesse, providing all critical information as decisions have been made.

Please know that I am endlessly appreciative of the dedication you have all shown to our students while continuing to adapt to this new and ever-changing environment. Since the early days of this crisis, you have been vital in helping our students continue to succeed while maintaining the health and safety of our entire community.

You are what makes this college an incredible place to work and to learn. Thank you for everything you are doing right now, and all that you do every day.